The Grand India Wildlife Adventure

Arrive in India's capital and transfer to the 5-star Taj Mahal Hotel, optimally located in the leafy heart of the Lutyens Delhi district with its broad boulevards, historic homes and government enclaves. The district is named after British architect Edwin Lutyens, who was responsible for much of the architectural design and building during the period of the British Raj, when India was part of the British Empire from the 1920s to 1940s.

This afternoon, discover some of the city's highlights on a tour of New Delhi. We'll drive past the India Gate, the President of India’s residence and the vast new Parliament building erected in 2023. Gurudwara Bangla Sahib—one of the country's most revered Sikh temples—is a special stop, with its large community kitchen that generously prepares over 10,000 free meals each day, all cooked by volunteers using donated ingredients from Sikh farmers. At the National Gandhi Museum, we learn about the life and principles of Mahatma Gandhi via a rich collection of original relics, books, journals and documents, photographs, audio-visual materials and other memorabilia closely connected with Gandhi and India's struggle for independence. If the museum is closed on a Monday, we will visit Humayun’s Tomb instead, a 16th-century Mughal architectural masterpiece and UNESCO World Heritage Site. Return to our hotel with time to refresh before a welcome dinner this evening, with an orientation to our India wildlife safari by our Expedition Leader.

Transfer to the airport very early this morning for our flight south to Jabalpur. Continue on a half-day's drive through the countryside of Madhya Pradesh to reach Bandhavgarh National Park. An essential stop on any serious India safari, Bandhavgarh is renowned for one of the country's highest concentrations of Bengal tigers. Originally established as a national park in 1968, Bandhavgarh was declared a protected tiger reserve under Project Tiger in 1993. At 444 square miles, it is a relatively small park with a thriving tiger population, offering visitors a good chance of encountering them, as well as other distinctive Indian wildlife. Check in to Kings Lodge, a leading ecolodge surrounded by wild natural forest just outside the park boundary. Then, time permitting, we'll set out on our first wildlife drive in open 4x4 safari vehicles.

Over the next two days, explore Bandhavgarh’s varied habitats on morning and afternoon wildlife drives. Covered predominantly with sal and mixed deciduous forest, thickets of bamboo and expansive grasslands that line the stream valleys, the park’s hilly terrain harbors one of the world's highest densities of tigers. Bandhavgarh was once a prime hunting reserve for the Maharajas of Rewa, where Maharaja Raman Singh alone shot an astounding 111 tigers by 1914. Today it is a pacesetter in tiger protection. With tigers at the apex of the food chain, Bandhavgarh’s rich biodiversity includes a multitude of other wildlife. We expect to see a sampler of its 37 mammal species, among which are leopard, jungle cat, civet, wild boar, sambar, spotted deer, muntjac (barking deer), gaur, sloth bear and Asiatic jackal. Some 250 bird species, 70 different butterflies and various reptiles round out the diverse wildlife population.

Embark this morning on a half-day drive to Kanha National Park. Situated in the Satpura Hills of central India, the park covers 750 square miles of rich and varied wildlife habitat. Its lush sal and bamboo forests, grassy meadows and ravines provided inspiration to Rudyard Kipling for his famous collection of stories in The Jungle Book . Kanha was established as a national park in 1955 and forms the core of the Kanha Tiger Reserve, created in 1974 under India's Project Tiger. The park's landmark achievement is the preservation of the rare barasingha, an endangered swamp deer with 12-point antlers, saving it from near-extinction. Strict conservation programs for the overall protection of the park's fauna and flora make Kanha one of the most exemplary national parks in Asia. From our luxurious ecolodge base in the tiger heartland of the world, learn in depth about the Bengal tiger and its habitat and observe how conservation travel directly benefits local communities and the tiger reserve. Following lunch on arrival, gain an introduction to the region on an initial safari drive, where we may spot our first Bengal tiger among other abundant wildlife.

Scenic Kanha, once a hunting ground for imperial rulers and viceroys, is now one of India’s most important conservation reserves. We spend three days exploring this premier national park in search of Bengal tigers and other wildlife on excursions in open 4x4 vehicles. With ideal habitat for tigers and their prey, it offers some of India’s best tiger viewing, though it can take effort to locate them in the sun-dappled forest that provides superb camouflage for many species. On our first two days, we greet the dawn with an early wildlife drive, entering the park just as the sun’s rays are breaking over the jungle. The open meadows where herbivores graze attract tiger, leopard and dhole (wild dog) to the edges of the clearings, and we'll hope to see some of these predators on the hunt. The Banjaar River bordering the park provides a steady water source for wildlife. Dense jungle interspersed with vast grassy meadows called maidans support a range of species similar to those in Bandhavgarh. Other mammals we might see include barasingha (swamp deer), common langur, gaur (the world's largest wild ox) and rhesus monkeys. After returning to our ecolodge for lunch, we head back out for afternoon wildlife drives, anticipating more chances to search for tigers and other wildlife.

As the morning mists lift, walk with our Expedition Leader in the buffer zone on the edge of the park's core area, following the Bahmani Nature Trail through pristine sal forest along the Banjar River. To be on foot in the jungle offers an intimate, primal encounter with this dense habitat and its wild inhabitants, in a manner that engages all five senses. Feel the leathery texture of a tendu leaf or size up a tiger’s pugmark with your hand. Smell the medley of fragrances, from blooming flowers to the aromatic herbs trampled by herds of deer. Hear birdsong, taste wild berries, and feel the thrill of walking on paths imprinted by predators as we listen for alarm calls that resound through the jungle. Our guide shows us how to interpret tracks and other signs of animal activity, and it's especially exciting to find fresh pugmarks on the sandy riverbank. Look, too, for scratch marks, scat, droppings and scent marks that enhance awareness of the multitude of hidden creatures that surround us. Get a glimpse into the ancient geological history of the region, standing on metamorphic rocks near the edge of the river, with gneiss, basalt and quartz exposed by the erosive power of water flowing over millions of years. We also learn more about the Indigenous people who have been hunter-gatherers in this jungle for millennia, part of the intricate web of life here.

This afternoon, a final game drive in Kanha National Park offers one last chance to spot tigers and other wildlife amid the photogenic landscape of rolling hills, dense forest and grasslands. Later this evening, after we gather for dinner, join in some festive dancing around the campfire during a cultural presentation at our lodge.

Depart Kanha this morning and drive a half-day to Raipur, watching scenes of daily rural life unfold along the roadside, then fly to Lucknow, the capital and largest city in the state of Uttar Pradesh in northeast India. We arrive early this evening and check in to the 5-star Taj Mahal Hotel. This regal property on the Gomti River provides a restful oasis after a long day of travel as we transit from one region of the country to another.

Drive a half-day from Lucknow to Dudhwa National Park, a thriving wildlife enclave well off the conventional safari circuit. The 190-square-mile park in the state of Uttar Pradesh lies on the Indo-Nepal border, protecting some of the last pristine expanses of Terai forest and grasslands in the Upper Gangetic Plains. Originally established as a wildlife sanctuary for the endangered swamp deer (barasingha), with its magnificent 12-point rack, it later became a tiger reserve in 1987. Today, tigers, leopards and many deer species abound, and the park has also successfully reintroduced a healthy population of one-horned Indian rhinoceros from Assam and Nepal, once hunted nearly to extinction. Other mammals include Asian elephant, sloth bear, wild boar, honey badger, langur, rhesus monkey, golden jackal, jungle cat, fishing cat, and more than 400 bird species. Among the avian highlights are hornbill, red jungle fowl, Bengal florican, fishing eagle, serpent eagle and paradise flycatcher.

On the outskirts of the park, we stay at Jaagir Manor, an 80-year-old former hunting lodge turned heritage eco-retreat. The colonial manor house offers luxury accommodations in period-1940s style, its focus today on hosting guests keen to conserve the wild species that were formerly targets.

Mulitple game drives reveal the prolific wildlife of Dudhwa National Park, part of an extensive arc of protected areas in the marshy lowlands along the Indo-Nepal border. This relatively undiscovered gem among Indian safari-goers is one of three large interconnected forested sanctuaries that form the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, and the lush area today is the core of a viable tiger population. Some of the land was formerly used to grow sugarcane and returned to its natural state, while other tracts of native forest, predominantly sal and teak, are intermixed with extensive tall grasslands and wetlands inundated by rivers flowing down from the Himalaya.

The inspiring force behind the creation of the reserve was Billy Arjan Singh, a famous hunter-turned-conservationist who had a vision in the 1960s to introduce several zoo-born tigers and leopards back into the wild. Ultimately, his efforts led to the establishment of Dudhwa National Park by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1977, and Singh was awarded World Wildlife Fund’s gold medal, its premier award, in 1996 for his conservation work. During our time, we will visit a local Tharu village, one of several in the area that are home to the Indigenous tribal people of the region. We’ll also take a nature walk in the forests surrounding our lodge for an intimate view on our environs, looking for smaller wildlife species and birdlife with our Expedition Leader. On our final evening, revel in memories of our Indian safari adventures as we gather for a farewell dinner.

It’s time to make the return drive to Lucknow this morning, then catch a 75-minute flight back to Delhi. Upon arrival at the Delhi airport, we transfer to our nearby hotel, just minutes away. An overnight stay is included along with a transfer to the international airport to meet departing flights, most of which leave late this evening.